Ariel

What Ariel means

Means “lion of God”

From Biblical Hebrew אֲרִיאֵל (ari'él, a compound of אֲרִי (arí, “lion”) +‎ אֵל (él, “God”), literally “lion of God”). (moon of Uranus): All of Uranus’s moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.

Source: Wiktionary, “Ariel” (revision 93817726), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Ariel?

US: Falling: down from #137 in 2015. England & Wales: Steady: #1007 in 2015, #951 now.

Biggest US share so far: 1991, when 5,411 girls got the name (#66 that year). First in the US records in 1892.

How common

• About 1 in 1,889 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 6,845 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in NM (1.93 per 1,000 girls), NV (1.3 per 1,000 girls), AZ (1.13 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Ariel is #355 in the US and #951 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 61.5% of US babies named Ariel were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Arielle618 US · 86 E&W
• Arely257 US
• Areli177 US · 4 E&W
• Arlie61 US · 20 E&W
• Iriel19 US
• Uriel11 US · 4 E&W
• Auriel14 US
• Eriel13 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

Spelling variants on Wiktionary

• Arielle

Listed as alternative forms on Wiktionary.

If you like Ariel

Girls

• Janelle#799Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1979, with 1,416 babies; 340 in 2025
• Deborah#862“bee”^*
• Marie#617Editor’s note Down from #560 in 2015 to #617 in 2025 in the US
• Jessie#823Diminutive of Jessica, possibly meaning “Iscah in Genesis 11:29…^*
• Lisa#987“Locally Integrated Software Architecture”^*
• Joanna#306“God is gracious”^*

For a brother

• Zachariah#536“Yahweh has remembered”^*
• James#6“May He Heel”^*
• Aaron#80Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1989, with 15,308 babies; 4,041 in 2025
• Jeremy#292Form of Jeremiah, meaning “Yahweh exalt”^*
• Adam#101“earth, man, soil, light brown”^*
• Michael#21“who is like God?”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Hebrew, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Ariel’s. Rank is US 2025.